“Respect is how you treat everyone, not just those you want to impress.”
Richard Branson is not just a successful businessman… He’s also a humble, respectful and interesting guy who has a lot of valuable advice. He’s the founder of the Virgin group, which owns more than 400 companies including Virgin Records and Virgin Airlines. Those close to him say that even though he’s a mega-billionaire, he always treats everyone well and respectfully, regardless of their social status or financial position.
Branson is also a philanthropist who has a charity team known as ‘The Elders’; a small, dedicated group of leaders, working objectively and without any vested personal interest to solve difficult global conflicts, with members including Peter Gabriel, Nelson Mandela, Desmond Tutu, Kofi Annan, and Jimmy Carter. Branson himself has pledged to commit his personal profits from all of his travel firms, more than $3 billion, to helping the world stop global warming. He has helped tens of thousands of refugees, encouraged other celebrities to raise tens of millions for charity, and is an overall good guy.
Together, these quotes are a great introduction to understanding the mind and heart of a compassionate and brilliant entrepreneur.
Here Are 50 Inspiring Quotes By Richard Branson On Life, Success, Family And Business
1. “Please be polite. Nothing in life should erode the habit of saying thank you to people or praising them.”
2. “A business is simply an idea to make other people’s lives better.”
3. “If your dreams don’t scare you they are too small.”
4. “There is no greater thing you can do with your life and your work than follow your passions in a way that serves the world and you.”
5. “If someone offers you a great opportunity and you’re not sure you can do it – say yes, then learn how to do it later.”
6. “I cannot remember a moment in my life when I have not felt the love of my family.”
7. “Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak; courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen.”
8. “The brave may not live forever, but the cautious do not live at all.”
9. “The lesson that I have learned and follow all my life is that we should try and try and try again – but never give up!.”
10. “Take a chance. It’s the best way to test yourself. Have fun and push your boundaries.”
11. “My family brought me up to always look for the best in other people. I love people. Love spending time with people. I love learning from people.”
12. “Do not be embarrassed by your failures, learn from them and start again.”
13. “You don’t learn to walk by following rules. You learn by doing and by falling over.”
14. “I’m a lad of the ’60s. I started a magazine to try and end the Vietnam war, but it was a number of years before I had the profile, the financial resources and the time to do more.”
15. “Entrepreneurship is a great leveler, The wonderful thing is that money is not the sole currency when it comes to starting a business; drive, determination, passion and hard work are all free and more valuable than a pot of cash.”
16. “The art of delegation is one of the key skills any entrepreneur must master.”
17. “Don’t be embarrassed by failures, learn from them and start again.”
18. “Do good, have fun and the money will come.”
19. “Respect is how to treat everyone, not just those you want to impress.”
20. “If you want to be more productive, then start at the start: get there on time. Whether it is a meeting, a flight, an appointment or a date, it’s important to ensure you are there when you say you will be there. This may feel like an old-fashioned tip to give, but it has served me well for five decades in business.”
21. “Learn from failure. If you are an entrepreneur and your first venture wasn’t a success, welcome to the club.”
22. “My definition of success? The more you’re actively and practically engaged, the more successful you will feel.”
23. “Happiness is the secret ingredient for successful businesses. If you have a happy company it will be invincible.”
24. “My mother was determined to make us independent. When I was four years old, she stopped the car a few miles from our house and made me find my own way home across the fields. I got hopelessly lost.”
25. “When you’re first thinking through an idea, it’s important not to get bogged down in complexity. Thinking simply and clearly is hard to do.”
26. “Communication: the thing humans forgot when we invented words.”
27. “Your company should act as a springboard for ambitious employees, not a set of shackles.”
28. “If you don’t have time for the small things, you won’t have time for the big things.”
29. “Entrepreneurial business favors the open mind. It favors people whose optimism drives them to prepare for many possible futures, pretty much purely for the joy of doing so.”
30. “Listen. Take the best. Leave the rest.”
31. “If you spot an opportunity and are really excited by it, throw yourself into it with everything you’ve got.”
32. “Engage your emotions at work. Your instincts and emotions are there to help you.”
33. “Don’t become a slave to technology, manage your phone, don’t let it manage you.”
34. “A business has to be involving, it has to be fun, and it has to exercise your creative instincts.”
35. “You’ve got to take risks if you’re going to succeed.”
36. “Train people well enough so they can leave, treat them well enough so they don’t want to.”
37. “Fun is one of the most important and underrated ingredients in any successful venture.”
38. “Entrepreneurship is about turning what excites you in life into capital so that you can do more of it and move forward with it.”
39. “Find the right people to work with and you can’t go wrong.”
40. “Remember it’s OK to be yourself.”
41. “I’ve seen life as one long learning process.”
42. “The best advice I could give anyone is to spend your time working on whatever you are passionate about in life.”
43. “Through the right people focusing on the right things, we can, in time, get on top of a lot if not most of the problems of this world. And that’s what a number of us are trying to do.”
44. “Don’t think what’s the cheapest way to do it or what’s the fastest way to do it, think ‘what’s the most amazing way to do it.’ ”
45. “Once a change-maker, always a change-maker but only a few swim against the tide.”
46. “Entrepreneurship isn’t just a label – it’s a lifestyle.”
47. “Fortunately we’re not a public company – we’re a private group of companies, and I can do what I want.”
48. “To me, business isn’t about wearing suits or pleasing stockholders. It’s about being true to yourself, your ideas and focusing on the essentials.”
49. “My general attitude to life is to enjoy every minute of every day. I never do anything with a feeling of, ‘Oh God, I’ve got to do this today.”
50. “I’ve never been interested in business or making money. I’ve just been interested in doing things I can be proud of.”
Does any of Richard Branson’s advice resonate with you?
Let us know in the comments.
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